Method of and apparatus for mingling gases



(N0 Modl.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

A. O. LEWIS.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MINGLING GASES. No. 372,687. I Patented Nov. 8, 1887,

N. EETEHS. Pholvumognphor, wan-mm, u.c.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

A. G. LEWIS.

METHODOF AND APPARATUS FOR MINGLING GASES.

Patented Nov. 8, 1887.

N. PETERS. PhohrLdhngnpher. Washington. D. C.

ATENT ALBERT O. LEW'IS, OF KINGS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

METHOD CF AND APPARATUS FOR [VHNGLING GASES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 372,687, dated November 8, 1887.

Application filed July 80, 1886. Serial No. 209,508.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, ALBERT G. Lnw1s,a citizen of the United States, residing in the county ofKings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for Mingling and Combining Gases, of which the following is a description in such full, clear, and exact terms as to enable any one skilled in the art to which my invention belongs, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Broadly considered, my present invention proceeds upon the application of the principle of mingling gases or other substances by means of converging jets or streams of the same upon each other. In a previous patent, granted to me October 14, 1884, No. 806,500, I have shown and described an apparatus operating upon this principle.

My present invention may be used for various purposes-such as, for instance, making hydrocarbon burners, manufacturing illuminating-gases, and the like. Its application, in fact, extends to all operations where it is necessary or desirable to conimingle, combine, or unite gases or other materials suitable to be used therein.

Certain features of novelty described in this application, but not claimed herein, are eovered by applications filed in the Patent Office January 31, 1887.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1. and 2 illustrate, respectively, a side and end elevation of an improved device used in the practice of my invention; and Fig. 3 illustrates the application of my invention to the firebox of an ordinary engine or other receptacle in which gases are to be commingled.

In the annexed drawings, A is a tube, open at both ends, as shown. Surrounding said tube is a chamber incloscd by the walls B O. From the front end of this chamber passages D are pierced through the head-piece O, which passages slant at such an angle that the streams of gas projected therethrough are given a direction that will cause them to converge upon each other and meet at a common focus-point at such a distance from the mouth of the tube (N0 model.)

A as may be desired. Leading into the chamber surrounding the tube A are two pipes, L and M. The pipe L L is provided with a valve, K, set in a suitable stuffing-box, and the pipe M M is also provided with a similar valve, I, set in a suitable stuffing-box; also leading into the pipe M is an entrancenozzle, F. Said pipe also contains an injector, E. These two pipes L and M intersect and are provided with a common supply-pipe, J. Attached to the pipe M is an ordinary blowing'off nozzle, G, fitted with a cock, H.

The operation of this device is as follows: Steamis admitted to the pipes Maud L through the supply-pipe J. Supposing the blowingoff cock to be closed and the valves I and K to be open, said steam will flow through both pipes M and L into the chamber surrounding the tube A and out through the slanting perforationsD atits mouth. Oil, or asimilar material, is caused to flow through the supplynozzle F, and when it reaches the mouth of the injector E is caught by the projected jet of steam and is driven into said chamber in a gaseous state, or in the form of exceedinglytine spray. In said chamber it is mingled with the steam passing in through the pipe L, and these are forced out through the openings D in converging jets, as heretofore described. The rescrvoir containing the oil may be, if desired, set at a higher level than the tube F, so that the oil will enter thereat at a pressure due to the elevation of the reservoir; but this is not necessary, as the reservoir may be placed at a lower level and the action of the device be relied upon to draw the supply of oil. As I have fully described in my said patent, the converging jet-s of steam issuing from the holes D D induce a flow of atmospheric air through the pipe A, which ilow may be regulated by means of 'an ordinary cock attached to its rear end. By means ofthe valves I K the amount of steam entering the pipes L M may be regulated to obtain the best possi ble results, as well for injecting the oil as for regulating the amount of steam to be combihed with it.

The injector described andillustratcd herein Y to a gaseous state, the oil and mixes it with steam before it is introduced into the mixingchamber, where it is preferably still further diluted, so to speak, with steam. This is desirable, in order to promote the proper combination of thegases in the fire box or retort.

Referring to Fig.4, N N illustrate the external and internal casing of a fire-box, P, fitted with water-pipes O 0. Set through the wall of said fire-box five injectingtubcs, B O, are shown. These tubes are substantially similar to that illustrated in Fig. 1 by the'letters A B G, hereinbefore described. If they are to be employed in connection with a fire-box in which coal or a similar fuel is being burned, it will generally be more desirable to inject only steam and air into the fire-box, where it will find the carbon with which it is to unite; and in that case it is evident that the device E L M would be superfluous and useless, and an ordinary steam'pipe having a suitable valve to regulate the supply of steam admitted to the chamber between the tubes A B will be preferred. Fig. 4 may also be understood to illustrate any suitable chambcrin which illuminating-gas is being made.

In Fig. 4 it will be observed that the injecting-tubes B G are so arranged with reference to each other that the converging jets of steam.

and oil, or steam issuing out of the several tubes, meet at a common point, the result of which is that the gases are perfectly commingled and held in the box at a predetermined point until combustion is complete. The point of impingement of the several jets upon each other is preferably a few inches above the coal-bed and immediately beneath the aperture through which the waste products of combustion escape to thefiue. WVhere five such injecting-tubes are discharging into the fire-box, I prefer to have them placed as shown in the drawings, as such disposition locates the region of maximum heat at about the center of the box. If the two tubes located at the front end of the box be omitted,the result will be to overheat the front end of the box and lose much heat and combustible material driven off through the flue. If the three tubes placed near the back of the furnace be omitted, while little or no fuel will be wasted yet the region of greatest heat'will be near the mouth of the furnace. I therefore regard the placing of tubes in a furnace to discharge in a direction opposite to the direction of the draft of the furnacea matter of considerable importance.

As I have already observed, if coal or other carbonaceous material is being burned, steam alone is preferably introduced through the in- WVhen my invention is used for the purpose of making illuminating-gas, it is not possible to leave the rear end of the tube E open and depend upon the converging jets to draw the necessary quantity of air into the reservoir, as the pressure of gas in the reservoir is too great for that; and if such end be left open the gas in the reservoir will force its way in the opposite direction through the tube. In this case air may be introduced through such tube by means ofaforce'pump. Iprefer, however, to stop up such tube when making illuminating-gas and to dilute the gas so made with atmospheric air, at proper intervals, directly from a pump.

I am aware that it is not new to inject intoa tapering and flaring cylinder surrounding a heated steam-pipe steam and also liquid hydrocarbon oil, said cylinder being provided with slanting perforations from which the oil and steam are discharged. In such a device the heat of the interior steam-pipe and the irregular shape of the cylinder are relied upon to disassociate and vaporize the liquid hydrocarbon and to combine it with the elements of the steam. This will not be done to a suffi cient extent to make such a device useful. Besides, in such devices the central steam-pipe is carried .out far enough to prevent the converging streams issuing from the head of the cylinder meeting, and the several rows of converging perforations are not directed to impinge upon each other, but are parallekand meet at different points. the hereinbefore-described device, compared with those heretofore used, are quite obvious.

Chief among them may be mentioned the fact that the hydrocarbon is mechanically disassociated and broken up in the form of exceedingly-fine spray, or resolved into gas and united with a certain portion of steam in the injector;

. and also the fact that theissuing and convergingjets impinge upon each otherin the chamber in which the gases are combined. It will therefore be observed that one of the features of my invention consists of an improved method of mingling hydrocarbon gas with other gases,

and that this method consists substantially of the steps pointed out-to wit, first mechanically disassociating hydrocarbon oilsuch as crude or refined petroleum thus' reducing'it to the form of exceedingly-fine spray and of then thoroughly mingling it with steam, and of then discharging the mingled steam and oil in converging jets impinging upon each other, whereby the union of the gases is made complete and effectual.

I have now described the principal features of my invention and the apparatus I employ, and I understand that any merely formal change not materially affecting the principle and operation of the same will be included in this description and the concluding claims.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Let- 'tors Patent, is-

1. In a device for vaporizing oils and mingling therewith steam and air, the combina- ISO The advantages of chamber having converging [perforations D, from which said vapors are discharged, of steam and oil pipes E F, forming an injector, by means of which the oil is sprayed and introduced into the vaporizing-chamber, and a pipe, L, arranged to introduce a jet of steam into the vaporizingchamber, substantially as 20 described.

ALBERT O. LEWIS.

\Vitnesses:

E. F. HoPKINs, J. EDGAR BULL. 

